Former Indy 500 champ Buddy Lazier gets another ride

FILE - Former Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier breaks down his practice run on Carburation Day to his father Bob Lazier, May 24, 2013, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.(Photo: Gary A. Mook / for The Star)Buy Photo

Buddy Lazier will have a personal message to deliver when he starts talking about the decals on his racecar during next month's Indianapolis 500.

Lazier, 46, will be competing in the 500 for the 18th time, he confirmed Wednesday. It will be his second with Lazier Partners Racing. Winner of the 1996 500, Lazier has had four other top-five finishes.

For more than a decade, Lazier and his wife, Kara, searched for someone to help their daughter, Jacqueline, who was born with a rare eye disorder known as Aniridia, which reduces visual acuity (sharpness) and increases sensitivity to light. Combined with glaucoma, Jacqueline has lost vision in her right eye.

Being an Indy 500 champion afforded Lazier access to many vision experts, but until recently the family hadn't made progress with Jacqueline's condition.

Last fall, a friend in Michigan whose child battled a similar rare condition directed the Laziers to the University of Iowa's Stephen A. Wynn Institute for Vision Research, which specializes in rare retinal diseases. That's the group that will be featured on the side of Lazier's No. 91 Dallara/Chevrolet next month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"When something like this happens to your child, you're just looking for anyone to help, and it can be very discouraging when you don't know who can do what they say they can do," Lazier said. "Believe me, in 10 years we'd seen a lot of doctors, a lot of specialists."

Steve Wynn is the chairman and chief executive officer of Wynn Resorts, and he also has a rare degenerative eye condition, retinitis pigmentosa. Last year, Wynn committed $25 million to the institute in Iowa City.

"It's unbelievable," Lazier said of the institute. "It occupies two floors and there are 36 of the best scientists you can find."

Lazier said his daughter, now 12, hasn't directly benefited from the Iowa research, "but she will; she clearly will."

Like her father, Jacqueline is a racer, recently winning a Colorado karting championship. She's also an accomplished skier and dancer. Her 15-year-old brother, Flinn, also is a top-level racer and skier.